Dam Inspiring: A life of freeing rivers.
Friends of the River’s inimitable and loquacious Tom Huntington wandered into our campsite at Parrot’s Ferry on the Stanislaus River in the early 1970’s. He explained that the government was going to dam the entire river and that the spot where we standing would be under 100’s of feet of water unless we stopped them. Tom seemed crazy, but his sincerity won us over.
We were pretty new to rafting, but loved everything about the river – its beauty, the thrill and challenge of whitewater, and the experience of working together to make it all happen. One day, seemingly out of the blue, my dad had brought home a hypalon raft and a handful of wooden paddles and lifejackets home. We went straight to the Stanislaus, survived Camp Nine Road and the tougher rapids before shredding the raft at Razor Rock. We went back the following spring at the peak of snowmelt – the roaring river bore little resemblance to the rocky stream we’d floated the previous year. We were self-taught rookies, gloriously and innocently delighting in the dazzling high water, at least until we were called on to free a wrapped boat and rescue one terrified young woman after her second long swim of the day.
After high school, I went to ARTA’s whitewater school on the Green, Middle Fork and Main Salmon Rivers, so we were no longer total amateurs. We also did the Klamath, American and Eel (including Coal Mine Falls!), but the Stanislaus was still our go to river.
Boating the Stanislaus meant camping at Parrot’s Ferry and getting to know Clyde and his omnipresent goat – the only two permanent residents. But it also meant hearing more about Friends of the River. They explained how the New Melones Dam would never pay for itself, but that the project was the result of the inane pork barrel politics that were responsible for desecration of some of the west’s major rivers. FOR was mounting a fight to stop construction of the dam, and would I help?
FOR gave me a stack of Prop 17 “Deliver the River” pamphlets to take to UC San Diego when I returned in the fall of 1974. As students walked by the gym, I would hand them a pamphlet and tell them about this destructive boondoggle on a faraway river they’d never heard of. I am not sure how many minds I changed, but the experience stuck with me. I realized I cared about the natural world, and especially about rivers.
After graduating college, I went back to the Stanislaus – this time as a guide for Whitewater Voyages. There were so many great trips and still are so many memories, especially introducing the river to people for their first time. But New Melones Dam was complete and the river’s days were numbered. Mark Dubois, shortly after he had chained himself to a rock and become an instant legend, met me outside the pizza place in Columbia and further inspired me to care about and fight for rivers.
On the Stanislaus, I also met then married fellow guide Isabella Salaverry. We became private boaters and have since floated most of the major rivers in western U.S with our three great kids.
FOR’s early conversations about irrational economics and pork barrel politics stuck with me. I found a job as a number cruncher for the Environmental Defense Fund, where I got to work on a number of river issues. In the 1990’s, I was able to help establish rules for releasing water into the Grand Canyon below Glen Canyon Dam, to better protect the canyon’s beaches and fisheries –which also improved conditions for rafters. And I helped the Hoopa Valley Tribe in a number of ways with its lawsuit to increase flows and restore the Trinity River – the principal object of the plan is to improve salmon populations but it’s pretty darn good for boating too.
I have now taken on a new challenge. I have joined Restore Hetch Hetchy, an organization dedicated to freeing the Tuolumne River free within Yosemite National Park and undoing the greatest damage ever allowed in any of America’s national parks. Fighting a dam is always hard, and it’s even harder if it’s already been built. But dams are coming out, as we well know, thanks to the work of conservationists everywhere. Hetch Hetchy’s day will come.
I’ve had so many great river experiences and feel lucky to be able to work to protect and restore rivers. I am eternally grateful to Friends of the River for inspiring me so many years ago and for the great work it continues to do.